Tuesday, November 13, 2012

weekend review

We're going to kick this one off with Senior Seasons first; that way I can't write the whole post and then chicken out and punt it to Tuesday again.

Good Counsel 21, St. John's 7: Brendan Marshall was a perfect seven for seven for 102 yards and Good Counsel will advance to the WCAC final against - who else - DeMatha. Good Counsel is 10-1.

A.L. Brown 69, Hickory Ridge 55: Keeon Johnson and Kannapolis got revenge for their first in-county loss in decades, and Johnson had a whopping 12 catches for 116 yards and (kind of surprisingly given the score) one touchdown. Johnson missed the first game against this team with turf toe. Brown is 10-3, and advances to the third round.

Ocean Lakes 34, Granby 3: Ocean Lakes had no trouble advancing. That's the good news. The bad news is that they'll have to go the rest of the way without Corwin Cutler, whose torn-up knee put a premature end to a phenomenal season. Ocean Lakes is 11-0.

Oscar Smith 35, Bayside 12: Smoke Mizzell ran for 175 yards on 20 carries and played a lot of defense too, but Zach Jones and Oscar Smith handled Bayside pretty easily. Bayside finishes their season at 8-3; Oscar Smith is also 8-3 and advances to face Salem.

-- 2 regular seasons are still going on, sort of. BC High has a rivalry game on Thanksgiving weekend, but they're 3-6 and whatever form of playoffs they might have qualified for, they didn't. Monsignor Donovan (Brad Henson's team) has one game next week, and once again I'm blowed if I can figure out what the hell goes on in New Jersey.

-- 3 seasons are done. Zach Bradshaw and Damascus were upset as heavy favorites in the first round, and somebody had to lose between Smith and Bayside and Bayside it was. Bradshaw and Taquan Mizzell join Jack English on the sidelines.

-- 4 championship games are next weekend. FUMA plays in the VISAA Division I final against Liberty Christian. Gilman has the MIAA championship against Calvert Hall, whom they beat 24-14 a few weeks ago. Salisbury plays in the Jack Etter Bowl, which is the NEPSAC Class A championship, against Phillips Exeter. And of course, there's the WCAC Good Counsel-DeMatha game.

-- 7 teams continue - or start - their playoff roll. In North Carolina they're in the 3rd round, where South Iredell will play Bandys and A.L. Brown plays Charlotte Catholic. South Iredell played Bandys about a month and a half ago, and won 24-13. Brown has not played Charlotte Catholic this season, but they're fairly familiar playoff opponents; Catholic is a semi-powerhouse. In fact, Catholic trekked up to Baltimore earlier this season, where Gilman and Micah Kiser beat them, 37-14.

In Texas, the first round begins next weekend, and Houston Westside takes on Houston Memorial in the first round. Let's hope Hipolito Corporan stays committed long enough for us to care about this playoff run.

Say, it's a Blogpoll ballot. We had a thin pool of teams to choose from this week. Four teams (UNC, WVU, PSU, TCU) were banished for picking up a fourth loss. 6-4 isn't good enough to be considered, with one exception to be discussed later. Ohio and Toledo, who were at the bottom of the pecking order anyway, dropped out because 8-2 is only good enough if you've got a win over a Big Five team that's .500 or better. OK, Ohio does, but they lost this week and were rock bottom before and not real likely to move up as a result of losing to Bowling Green. And Mississippi actually should've been out last week. No qualifying win on their schedule, either. Of all the teams that dropped off the edge, the highest-ranked was Penn State at 19th, and most were perennially well outside the top 25.

After adding Arizona back (the aforementioned exception) on account of a commonsensical suggestion in last week's comments (it seemed wrong to drop them from 11th to nowhere), the eligibility pool stood at 30. That makes it a lot easier and faster, for one thing. It means that Wisconsin and Rutgers are basically the beneficiaries of sticking around (and Wisconsin is bloody lucky Minnesota is bowl-eligible.)

About the ballot itself, I once again had to shove Florida down below the title contenders, although Oregon ended up legitimately in the top three this time. (They were #5 last week.) I think this is because of a somewhat improved outlook on vanquished opponents Washington and Arizona.

I was less inclined, this week, to move Nebraska below Ohio State, and ultimately, I obviously didn't. Ohio State was, up til now, the beneficiary of not having had a bye week; now everyone has had one, and so for all intents and purposes, nobody has, except those like Oklahoma that've had two. So OSU took a slight fall. Besides, despite the records and the head-to-head outcome, this is justifiable. Nebraska's top five wins: Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn State, Northwestern, Michigan State. OSU's: Nebraska, Penn State, Central Florida, Michigan State, Illinois.

Next week the eligible pool will probably grow again; I consider 7-4 with a qualifying win good enough.

********************************************************

Newsbits:

-- The "new BCS" is starting to take its final form. Truthfully, it's not that different from the old one. I'll have a more comprehensive user's guide tomorrow.

-- The men's soccer team has their 32nd straight bid to the NCAA's, and will host an opening-round game against Lafayette. The ladies trounced La Salle in the first round, and advance to play Rutgers at Klockner this Friday.

-- Hooptyball has started the season 1-1; the lack of a point guard is showing. A lot. But they did lock it down on defense tonight against Fairfield, and will play Delaware tomorrow in the Preseason NIT second round. The good news is that if we do end up having a marginally tourney-worthy season, the committee will likely take into account Jontel Evans's injury in considering that George Mason game.

-- LOLVT. Enjoy this video of wide receiver Marcus Davis taking a page from the Jeff Allen Instruction Book of Effort, and never blocking anyone. And then for further giggles, you can read Davis's response. My personal favorite: "You can't block in the back. That's obvious." Of course, they start off in front of you, but never mind that.

1 comment:

Anonymous
said...

I'm mildly surprised at how few minutes Darion Atkins has been getting in the early going. I figured, with the lack of depth up front, Tobey being a freshman, and Nolte a freshman who is more of a stretch 4, that Atkins would get some time.

Granted, Nolte is a similar size and a better offensive player, and Anderson is almost as tall and a better physical specimen, so it's not like Atkins had a huge advantage as a bigger player.

That said, I had been wondering who, amongst the current crop, might be a candidate to transfer, and Atkins has to be near the top of that list, with Gill coming next year.

Barnette/Jesperson have been giving steady time, but they seem the two most likely guys to lose when Evans/Brogdon, and to a lesser extent, Jones, make it back.

Which is the most accurate depiction of what happened on Sunday?

Clemons Library

1714 JPA: About Me

I am a Virginia fan and this is my Blawgg. I began life as a diehard Michigan fan, and orange joined the maize and blue in my blood when, as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed first year, I saw my first UVA football game on a hot September afternoon.
Here you will find impassioned and monumentally biased coverage of 'Hoos football in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball and lacrosse in the spring, and everything else when the mood strikes me.